Adventures in Lushland

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This was a wonderfully delicious meal and I would love to try to recreate it. I loved the texture of the crispy pork, the heat from the Sriracha, the noodles, really everything about it. I’ve gotten more comfortable with tweaking Plated’s recipes. For example, the recipe said to use the scallions only as garnish. I decided to toss the lighter green scallions in with the noodles and Chinese broccoli and it enhanced the flavor and helped soften the scallions. This meal was ready in only 29 minutes, within Plated’s 25-35 minute range. I also learned what lemongrass was- I had heard of the term, but never actually knew what it was. I don’t know how much it enhanced the pork, but I did include a closeup of it. My husband thought this was his 3rd favorite Plated meal ever, behind the Thai Coconut Khao Soi and the Blood Orange Wild Sockeye Salmon with Brown Butter Gnocchi.

This wasn’t a bad meal, but it wasn’t a GREAT meal either. It was WAY too saucy, there wasn’t enough gnocchi to soak it all up. Also, the pictures show a super cheesy pan, from the sad picture below you will see that was impossible with the amount of cheese given. Thank goodness I had mozzarella on hand to supplement!

It took me a about 50 minutes, Plated said it would take 35-45, so not too far off. One thing I did not like doing was crushing the tomatoes by hand. Since the can had been in the fridge, they were really cold and it was just an odd texture. Making the sauce though, apart from tomato crushing was kind of fun. Seeing everything come together and taste delicious is always an enjoyable experience. I also liked making my own salad dressing, and that is definitely something I could see myself doing in the future. It was a decent meal and a good learning experience.

Before this recipe, I did not know skate was a type of fish. I also didn’t really know what schnitzel was, and I had never seen a fennel root. Skate is a type of white fish, I found it similar to tilapia in taste and texture, but I should mention I do not have a refined palate. Schnitzel is a method of cooking, where you take thin meat and coat it in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs. I have used the schnitzel method of flour, egg, breading prior to this recipe, just never on very thin meat (usually fried chicken). As for the fennel root, picture 3 shows a closeup.

This was the first recipe that was incomplete! In the first step, Plated instructed me to chop the parsley. Which I did, but nowhere later in the recipe did they tell you what to do with it, so I ended up just putting it on top. I contacted Plated to let them know, Heather told me it was supposed to be added in the sauce with the thyme. She also gave me a $6 credit for my trouble, which was not necessary, but appreciated! This was my second time contacting Plated about an issue (the first was about a moldy potato) and both times they have been very pleasant and placed credits on my account.

This meal was just okay in my book. My husband helped the whole time, and it still took 41 minutes, within Plated’s range of 40-50. I did especially enjoy the purple potato chips, but the rest was nothing spectacular. I wasn’t a huge fan of the fennel root texture, I would have preferred a different vegetable instead. Also, the sauce would have benefited from the parsley as there wasn’t really enough. One thing I did NOT like at all was the disparity in the two fish fillets. They were completely different sizes as you can see in the picture below- one was at least twice as big as the other. I ate the smaller one, and definitely wished I had a little more fish.

My Italian husband LOVES pasta. Especially gnocchi. I don’t know what it is about those little potato dumplings it is that he enjoys so much, but he does. I always try to order any Plated meal that has gnocchi or any other fresh pasta. Fresh pasta tastes so much better than normal boxed pasta, but it also takes a lot longer to make and creates a huge flour mess in my kitchen.

This was another great Plated dish. One thing I really need to do is go with my gut sometimes instead of following the directions completely. For example, the recipe did not say to cut the artichoke hearts, so I left them whole. These ended up being really hard to eat, as they were too large to eat whole and were awkward to cut once in the broth with the chicken and gnocchi. My husband helped with this recipe and he took it upon himself to shred the chicken after cooking, which made it much easier and less messy to eat. I let the chicken braise a little longer as we were busy doing other things, so it did take 1 hour and 12 minutes instead of the 45-55 minutes Plated advised. But it was a tasty, delicious, and healthy meal.

At the risk of being repetitive, this was another fantastic Plated meal. It was ready in 45 minutes, exactly what Plated estimated. I loved the roasted potatoes, but the real star was the sauce. Sun-dried tomatoes, olives, capers, garlic, white wine, red pepper flakes all combined together gave a really rich briny flavor, that perfectly accompanied the cod. I did make a fairly innocuous mistake, I had misread the directions and combined the basil and parsley, putting both on the potatoes. Luckily it didn’t seem to affect anything really, and everything tasted delicious on the plate. Sorry the first picture is so blurry! I always try to get one of everything in the package, so if someone is considering Plated they have a better idea of what they will be getting. There is still a good deal of prep work, but I think having a yummy healthy meal ready in less than an hour is pretty good. 🙂

Prior to writing this blog post, I was not aware that tortelloni and tortellini were two separate words. My research has told me that the former is typically larger and filled with cheese whereas the latter is smaller and filled with meat. The more you know! I was busy with other things while making this meal, so it took me 52 minutes instead of the 35-45 Plated state it would take. But overall this was a nice, easy recipe. Not too much chopping, and I thoroughly enjoyed making a little flavor satchel. The broth was GOOD too! It did feel a little wasteful to take out the onion, carrots, and celery, so while I did toss the onion, I gave the carrots and celery to my dogs. They were super psyched about that! This is another recipe that would be quite easy to duplicate. I’d probably do a few things differently- keep the veggies, and probably wouldn’t make a flavor packet, but cooking pasta in broth instead of plain water really gives it a nice full flavor. I also surprisingly liked the mustard greens in the pasta, as they really added a nice texture. All in all, a pretty good meal from Plated!

I LOVED that this recipe only required me to wash a cutting board, knife, one pot, and a spoon when I was finished. The dish itself though was just okay. Not great, but not bad. I liked it, but I would be disappointed if I paid $12 for it in a restaurant. My husband didn’t even finish his, I ate those leftovers the next day for breakfast. It took me 35 minutes to make, so within the 30-40 Plated stated it would take. It was a little difficult to get the noodles cooked, I ended up breaking a lot of them in half as it was easier than trying to stir the pot with all of the veggies in it. I did really enjoy the edamame in the pasta, it gave a really nice texture. Overall, this was a decent dish, but not something I would order again from Plated.